Hospitality! The Dungeon Village*1
“Ah, the royal capital’s dungeon? Yeah, I know it. I’ve seen it a bit myself—it’s famous, after all.”
“I see.”
That day, I asked Mishisia-san, “What’s the royal capital’s dungeon like?”
You know, the one Lisas mentioned—the place where people live and work inside the dungeon because it’s got food, baths, sleeping quarters, and workplaces.
“Does it feel like it has a lot of mana there too?”
“Hmm, I’m not sure. I don’t think it’s the kind of place where you could plant a World Tree. Since it’s a state-run dungeon managed by the kingdom, the dungeon’s presence feels a bit faint, you know?”
“Oh, so that’s how it is…”
Listening to her, I tried imagining what the place might be like.
… Somewhere between an underground labor facility and a giant public bathhouse—my mental image was turning into a total mess. Nope. No clue.
“Hey, Lisas-san. You were in the Royal Knights, right? So, when you were young, did you ever do guard duty at the state-run dungeon?”
“Oh, you know about that? Yeah, I did. Even after I became a knight, I sometimes went on patrols there… Well, it’s not exactly a place free from trouble.”
Lisas-san gave a wry smile, and Mishisia answered with an “I see,” tilting her head.
“It’s still pretty rare for a dungeon to be managed by the state, isn’t it? You see that sometimes in villages or towns without other industries…”
“Well, since no monsters appear there, nothing too bad tends to happen. More importantly, the state-run dungeon in the capital is a workplace. Having lots of people there working and paying taxes is a big benefit for the kingdom.”
Ah, I get it now. It’s like industrial promotion, huh?
Even if you’ve got a workforce, if there’s nowhere for them to work, you’ll just get depopulation. Some will end up jobless, maybe even turning to crime… kind of like those ex-adventurers who came here before.
“Well, dungeons like that are rare. As far as I know, the only remaining ‘dungeons where monsters hardly appear’ are this one, the state-run dungeon, and a few faraway ones. They’re rare, so it makes sense people would want to protect them.”
“I wonder if my dungeon will ever get protected too…”
If it’s rare, then I’d sure like it protected. Then I could attract tons of books and authors. Make it a library town. Then I’d soak up all the mana I could from them.
“Maybe someday, we could go inspect other dungeons too.”
“Sure. If it’s the capital, I can show you around.”
Okay. Maybe I’ll ask Lisas and go to the state-run dungeon soon…
… Or so we were leisurely thinking when—
“Asuma-sama!”
Edele came running toward us, and, well, that gave me a bad feeling. Definitely means something happened.
And sure enough—
“A letter arrived from the royal castle... They want to inspect the dungeon.”
When she said that, Friedrich Nietzsche started screaming in my head: “When you set out to inspect another dungeon, that dungeon too sets out to inspect you.”
“Uh… inspection? Why?”
“Maybe it’s something those Church people said. You remember how the Holy Knights reported that ‘there was nothing in that village’? Well, I doubt the first priest who came would be satisfied with that answer.”
Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Like when your senpai tells you, “Go handle this!” and after all that, they just say, “Eh, there’s nothing there.” You’d be fuming.
“But if the Holy Knights haven’t moved, then I doubt the kingdom would act so big just because one priest petitioned them… Maybe that priest really was from a noble family…”
Ah, that’d explain it. A spoiled noble kid joins the Church—yeah, that tracks. He was pretty arrogant and clueless.
“If they’re calling it an ‘inspection,’ maybe that’s the compromise... But it’s also possible someone in the castle is genuinely interested in this dungeon.”
Lisas-san’s words sounded both encouraging and unsettling.
Being the subject of interest can go either way—good or bad. It’s kind of scary, really... Still, if it brings more people here, that could mean more books, and that’s a plus. So I’m not against it outright.
Besides, we’ve got a strong ally here.
“If they’re coming for an inspection, I wonder what kind of people they’ll send. Will they check inside the dungeon too?”
“Hmm… probably someone from the Knights. The war’s over, and a lot of them have time on their hands…”
After all, Lisas used to be one of the Royal Knights! If a dungeon inspection’s coming from the castle, his insight’s bound to help.
“Then should we prepare something? Like a big banner saying, ‘Welcome, Inspection Party!’”
“That’d just make them suspicious…”
Yeah, fair enough. The banner was more of a joke anyway. You know those huge cloth signs at high schools that say stuff like “Congrats, Bon Dance Club—National Tournament!”? I was picturing one of those hanging at the cave entrance. You know. Like that.
“… We probably don’t need to prepare anything special. But we should be ready to offer them lodging.”
“In that case, let’s expand the inn. We’ve been meaning to do that anyway.”
“True. It’s been almost full every day lately. We could use more space.”
Right. Adventurers have been increasing lately—some even settling down. Plus, with that, there are more migrants and merchants coming too, so yeah, more lodgings make sense.
“So, uh, how many people should we prepare for? Knights are usually big guys, right? Should we make the portions extra-large?”
“Extra-large…? Ah, well. If we can house around twenty people, that’ll do. The inspection party will likely be about ten or so… A big room’s fine. They’ll probably just send lower-ranked knights anyway.”
“Got it. Then I’ll make five big rooms with four beds each—big beds.”
“Oh my, my, my… it’s already done.”
Following Lisas’s advice, I built the new inn. I made sure outsiders couldn’t see the construction, but since this world’s used to earth magic construction, maybe I didn’t even need to hide it. Still, I’m supposed to be “just a slime tamer,” so better safe than sorry.
“I’ll add a bath too. The village hot spring’s gonna get crowded with twenty more people.”
“Good idea. The knights don’t usually get long baths—they’ll love it.”
So I built a bathhouse too, separate for men and women (no unnecessary trouble, thank you).
And thus, our hospitality inn was born. The new residents who decided to settle here would work as staff.
The dining hall’s already running thanks to migrants, and those who used to be farmers have joined the Panis villagers saying, “Harvesting with slimes… bliss…” while working the fields. Watching the village grow like this feels pretty nice, honestly.
“Is there anything else we should prepare?”
“Well… if I had to say, maybe… the dungeon itself?”
Just as I was getting into a hospitality groove, Lisas frowned.
“… If the visitors tried to seize the dungeon, that’d be a problem.”
“Huh? That’s… possible?”
“I don’t know. I was never good with politics… But if, for example, they think ‘the workforce from the state-run dungeon is flowing to Panis Village,’ then taking control here could be seen as a solution.”
Ah… right. That could happen.
“Of course, anyone reasonable wouldn’t do that. But if the world were full of reasonable people, there wouldn’t have been a war to begin with.”
“Yeah… fair point.”
He clearly had mixed feelings about that.
Honestly, if you think about it, even if workers moved from the capital to here, that’s still good for the kingdom overall. Anyone with sense would agree.
But if, say, some official managing the state-run dungeon decided, “Our numbers are down—let’s ‘handle’ the cause,” then yeah, that’d be trouble.
When uninformed people and power mix, things get messy fast.
… And as I was thinking that, a thought hit me.
“… Wait, why are they coming to inspect the dungeon in the first place?”
I mean, what’s the actual reason?
When I asked Edele if it said in the letter, she said, “Only the date. Officially, it just says they’re investigating the newly discovered dungeon’s status.”
So, yeah, no idea what the real reason is.
“Maybe they’re just curious—it’s rare, after all.”
“Could be. It might’ve become a rumor that monsters don’t appear here. Or like you said, that priest might’ve stirred something up.”
Yeah, that tracks. Could be Church-related, could be about the state-run dungeon.
Maybe I’ll just ask them when they get here—“So, what brings you?”
“… Or maybe,” Lisas added, “it’s about the veterans. You know how many have drifted here since the war—those who lost jobs, or limbs, or more. Maybe that’s what they’re inspecting.”
“Huh…”
That’d actually be nice. Checking up on national welfare efforts and all.
… And then—
“Uh, Asuma-sama. Sorry, but could I ask you for a favor?”
“Sure?”
Lisas looked thoughtful, his expression serious.
“I need you to add one more room to the inn. A large, private one if possible.”
“Yeah, no problem… there.”
As he asked, I built two extra rooms in the new inn—both large and a bit luxurious.
Well, rooms like that might come in handy later anyway. The cost of construction’s basically nothing, so adding high-end options for future guests isn’t a bad idea.
… Still, the bitter look on Lisas’s face kind of bothered me.
The next morning, I was helping Mishisia and Lisas with the slime farm again.
“They’re as easygoing as ever…”
“That’s what makes them so cute…”
As we watched, the slimes marched forward, squishy and steady. When Mishisia poked one while harvesting tomatoes, saying, “So cute,” it wobbled but didn’t break formation.
When I added fertilizer and water, they jiggled happily and kept moving along.
This was the tomato row, so they all had tomatoes sprouting on them, but over there you could see wheat slimes, herb slimes, carrot slimes, bean slimes—lots of kinds. They’d merge in from different rows like a forked road and line up for me to water and fertilize them at the end.
“Today’s tomatoes look great! Is it thanks to you, Asuma-sama?”
“Hmm, maybe about half, yeah.”
The tomatoes are genetically modified, after all. The carrots and beans we got from Panis Village seeds have been selectively bred too, so—this flavor, yield, and disease resistance? Yeah, that’s me and science, baby.
But after that, it’s the slimes that do the real work—fertilizer and water from the dungeon, plus all the harvesting and pruning done by the Panis villagers. See, living things aren’t just about genes. The environment matters a lot too.
… Yeah. That’s the thing.
Living things are mysterious. Their quality changes a lot depending on how they’re raised—nutrients, temperature, stress, everything. Like spicy radishes—they only turn spicy under stress.
And right now, we were—
“Oh! They’re back! Asuma-sama! The hot spring herb slimes are here!”
“All right! Let’s check the quality of your herbs!”
… Testing how soil and temperature affect herb properties. Basically, we’ve been letting the herb-headed slimes soak in hot springs. Slimes like baths anyway, but these guys have been in there since morning.
“How is it? How is it?”
“Wait a sec, Mishisia-san… analyzing now… Oh!”
Using absorption, I checked the herbs grown on the hot spring slimes’ heads.
“… Whoa. High in beauty and healing-type fantasy energy!”
“Uh, you mean mana?”
“Yeah, something like that.”
I still don’t really get this “fantasy energy” thing, even after analyzing it, but I can tell what kind of effects the herbs have.
These ones heal wounds cleanly without scarring—and the hot spring seems to boost that effect.
“… Maybe it’s from all the mana they absorbed in the hot spring?”
“Could be. Also, they seem to have developed a cooling property.”
“… Did they overheat?”
“Probably…”
Like how stressed radishes get spicier, maybe overheated slimes grow herbs with a cooling effect.
That could make great burn ointment, so yeah, that’s fine by me.
“So if we chilled them instead, we’d get herbs that help frostbite…?”
“Don’t freeze them, Asuma-samaaa…”
… Yeah, I’ll keep experimenting—gently.
“All right, then today’s bath mix for the inn’ll be ‘fatigue relief, beauty, and pain relief for old wounds.’ Since your old colleagues might come, Lisas-san.”
“Good idea. Oh, and let’s add some nice-smelling flowers too, Asuma-sama!”
We were checking the herb quality to make bath additives for the inn today.
Because, well… today’s the day the inspection party’s coming.
Might as well give them a warm welcome, right? So yeah—time to go all out.
What do you think about this chapter?
